Austin, Texas-based Hai Hospitality is opening a D.C. outpost for its Japanese restaurant Uchi downtown this fall.
The company has signed a lease for ground floor space at the recently completed 17xM office tower at 1150 M Street in Northwest.
The first Uchi opened in Austin in 2003. It is from James Beard Award-winning chef Tyson Cole, and is what Cole calls nontraditional Japanese fare. It will be the seventh location for Uchi.
Cole was named Best New Chef by Food & Wine in 2005, and a semifinalist for Best Chef: Southwest by the James Beard Foundation in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
The restaurant will seat 185, including two private dining rooms and the bar. There is a separate sushi counter with seating as well.
Uchi is Japanese for “house,” a reference to the original Austin location in a little red house.
The menu will include both hot and cold dishes, sushi, sashimi, makimono, yakimono, tempura and omakase.
A finalized menu for the D.C. location is not currently available. But prices on the Austin menu are reasonable, with most in the $15 to $30 range. An A5 Wagyu beef hot rock special is priced at $85.
Hai Hospitality’s other restaurants include Uchiko, with locations in Austin, Houston and Miami Beach, plus Uchiba with locations in Austin and Dallas, Oheya in Houston, and Loro Asian Smokehouse in Austin, Houston and Dallas.
Law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP anchors 17xM. The 11-story building is halfway between the White House and Dupont Circle.
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